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His Lion Majesty one day wished to know
Of what nations Heaven had made him master.
He therefore summoned by envoys
His vassals of every kind,
Sending to all sides
A circular in writing,
With his seal. The document stated
That for a month the King would hold
A full court, whose opening
Was to be a very grand feast,
Followed by the tricks of Fagotin.
By this act of magnificence
The Prince displayed his power to his subjects.
He invited them to his Louvre.
What a Louvre! a veritable charnel house, whose stench wafted
At once to people’s noses. The Bear plugged his nostril:
He could have done without making that face,
His grimace displeased. The irritated Monarch
Sent him to Pluto to play the squeamish one.
The Monkey highly approved this severity,
And, excessive flatterer, he praised the wrath
And the claw of the Prince, and the den, and that odor:
There was no amber, there was no flower,
That was not garlic compared to it. His foolish flattery
Had a bad outcome, and was punished too.
That Monseigneur of a Lion
Was related to Caligula.
The Fox being near: Now then, said His Majesty,
What do you smell? tell me: speak without disguise.
The other at once excused himself,
Pleading a great cold: he could only say
Without smell; in short, he got out of it.
This serves you as a lesson:
Do not be at court, if you wish to please there,
Neither a insipid flatterer, nor a too sincere speaker,
And try sometimes to answer in Norman.
Jean de La Fontaine
Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.
Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/fable-the-lions-court-jean-de-la-fontaine/